Hawker Typhoon RB396

Fantastic news Dave, great to see that more & more parts are making their way to this important project especially the engine!!! Pete

Good news indeed. Congrats!

It took longer than I thought to filter through to here…didn’t want to appear to do a ‘sales pitch’ on someone else forum.

We were hoping to have completed everything for the engine for the launch but there was a last minute delay…10 years of research and talking to people I guess a few more weeks is not too bad 🙂

It is a fantastic example which is complete apart from the starter (which we can’t have in the UK anyway) and the exhaust stubs (which we have 18 examples of). She is a bit of a beast and makes RB the only Typhoon project ever to have had a restorable Sabre engine.

We have all the information for the cowls and tail and lots of data for the wings. In addition to the research I have done in the last 17 years and chasing the engine I have also been tracking wings. There are quite a few options and like everything else it is a matter of waiting a short while…

As for the legs…Denis put me on the path of 2 pairs of nos, thanks to him I managed to secure them a few years ago. In addition we have an additional 5 undercarriage legs (2 more pairs) with all the castings. I don’t have pics to hand of the nos units but will get posted on the site when I can.

In addition to the tons of parts we also have a cache of Sabre spares…about another 1/2 engine which we feel is enough to go ahead. Ideally a second example but until then we do have spares….

Things seems to be coming along rather quickly after a really long time..

Lovely to have a ‘good news’ story at the moment.

What a sight & sound this would be in the sky. I wonder if modern engineering techniques, materials & machining could make the engine more reliable? Although aware of the problems with the Centaurus powered Sea Furies…

Great work – I wish you good fortune along the restoration route.

Hi Dave,

First of all, congratulations to your team for securing a Sabre engine. This is a massive achievement, and to see this happen so soon after the public launch event, is a real boost.

The fuselage appears to be mostly there from the tail joint forward, right through to the engine mounts. I understand the project has a large amount of drawings to reference now. Are all of the drawings there to make the complete tail unit, and forward cowlings?

What is the plan regarding re-creating the wings? Do the drawings contain the co-ordinates for the ribs, or can you scan the RAFM example and reverse-engineer the shape in CAD?

Do you have any photo’s you could share for the undercarriage legs?

Once again, superb effort all round!

Oh…just recently picked up 2 pairs of undercarriage…They were NOS (have surface rust after 70 years!). The size of these things I would not like to have to start again.

Glad to have been of help in sourcing these for a Tiffie project :eagerness:

:eagerness: Well done them but only having 1 engine available no room for any hic cups.How reliable were they bearing in mind the problems with Centurus and keeping that running on the Furys,both highr performance engines at the peak of development. .

No pleasing some people is there? 😮

:eagerness: Well done them but only having 1 engine available no room for any hic cups.How reliable were they bearing in mind the problems with Centurus and keeping that running on the Furys,both highr performance engines at the peak of development. .

Great news indeed! Who had ever thought such a project would become a reality?

This is big news I’m surprised its not been posted on here yet.

http://hawkertyphoon.com/napier-sabre-engine-secured/

Some early Tempest Vs had the 4 blade DH prop of the late Typhoon. And a few late Typhoons had the Rotol prop which was more standard on the Tempest V. I guess it was all down to availability leading up to and over the period of production changes. So both types swung both ways on prop type to some degree.

I have spent quite a bit of time trying to determine whether, as per conventional wisdom, late production Typhoons were ever fitted with Rotol propellers. I have found no documentary or photographic evidence that suggests they were.

No mention of Rotol in the Pilot’s Notes, AP, or any any of the A&AEE reports (which usually give details of the prop type fitted). No sightings of Rotol’s distinctive markings on scores of photos which show the blades.

As for the Tempest V, the majority of production aircraft, including all JN, EJ and most NV- serialled aircraft had DH props, whereas most of the last production batch with SN serials had Rotol props. In addition to the blade markings they can be identified by a blunter (than the DH type) spinner, which was also in two parts; the vertical dividing line can seen forward of the blades on clear photos.

Anyone have a Hastings prop hub sitting around as a door-stop?

Some early Tempest Vs had the 4 blade DH prop of the late Typhoon. And a few late Typhoons had the Rotol prop which was more standard on the Tempest V. I guess it was all down to availability leading up to and over the period of production changes. So both types swung both ways on prop type to some degree.

This is a truly amazing project. I was on Airframe Assemblies Facebook page and they have put pictures up of a Tempest fuel tank they have done. How much commonality is there between the Typhoon and Tempest? Does the Typhoon have the same prop?

We got lots of responses like that from the day…people didn’t realise quite how much there was for RB now. We would have needed a few more trucks to bring everything else!!!

We had hoped that it would give people an idea of how big a Typhoon actually is but you still didn’t get that from what you see, even with the Spitfires and Mustang surrounding her…

It was a privilege to have the veterans there and even more so to see them explaining their medals to some younger supporters.

I was shocked and awed by the photos on Facebook of the launch – like Cees, I had no idea there was such a substantial hunk of aircraft involved! Very, very cool to see.

The cockpit is the spurious ‘EJ922’, the reason I say spurious is because there was no identification and it was narrowed down previously based on the Brownhills/Lichfield connection and examples sold for scrap. According to records EJ922 should have gone back to Cunliffe Owen for sliding hood modification whereas this fuselage is obviously car door.

In answer to you Cees…RB will be a sliding hood as she would have been from the factory. It is interesting to note that all the cast items on Frame A are the same as RB even tough there is a difference with the hoods. The rear fuselage section is going to be used as a pattern for the framework over the radio compartment (which is missing from RB’s cockpit). The section also has the complete hand hold that is automatically opened when the step is pulled out and close when pushed back in.

The

By the way, will RB396 be rebuild as a cardoor?

Is the cockpit section the one Barry Parkhouse had in his yard up at Booker?.

That’s just the bits we had on show for the launch 🙂 there is literally tons more!!! And more to come….sets RB apart from anything before!!